(may we stay lost) on our way home
by serablossom
Summary: they aren't just heroes. they are the curve of infinity as it dives, dipping and circling the palindrome as it searches for more, perhaps – the seven / new year treat from me to foreverskysong


**n** **otes:** i refuse to accept that tio rick did not tie up all the loose end in _Blood of Olympus_ _ **!**_ in my head, there was a whole 'offer of immortality or whatever you want in return' in olympus with both camps present, sally is assured of percy's safety and, while i am all into an annabeth-nico high-five, telling your old crush that you used to like them is not that simple. especially for nico's situation. also i used google maps for the road trip layout forgive my mistakes  
 **notes2:** maybe 'in denial' can be our always. in denial? in denial. i am very let down about that book okay more than a year later and i am still not over it i will never be over it  
 **notes3:** i am trying for happy i am so sorry if I failed, anxiety hit hard today -_- also WHY DOES THIS HAVE SECTIONS IT WAS JUST SUPPOSED TO BE THE SEVEN ON THE ROAD CURSE MY NEED TO EXPLAIN EVERYTHING  
 **setting/rating:** year after boo, summer of 2011  & rated: t for swearing coz i've got a sailor's mouth

 **dedication:** to _foreverskysong_ – oh my freaking gods i am so sorry for leaving you hanging for more than a year! after the summer i said i would write this fic, i started my 4th year in high school and that year was awfully busy what with college entrance exams and recommendation letters and clearances and my community service after… not important -_-'  
anyways, here it is! unfortunately, it isn't crack huhuhu i cannot write crack to save my life. i hope it is to your liking.

 **title:** (may we stay lost) on our way home  
 **summary:** they aren't just _heroes_. they are the curve of infinity, diving and circling the palindrome for more – the seven / new year treat from me to _foreverskysong_

* * *

There is no peace for demigods. Lamia's made sure of that.

Percy Jackson? He's one undeserving human in a sea of hundreds who suffers.

So it's not an uncommon thing for him to have a nightmare – but does it really count as a 'nightmare' if it's the same memory being relived over and over and over again? Usually, he wakes up screaming, ripping his sheets with Riptide and killing intent rolling off of him in waves.

 _(it's the darkness of the depths of the sea finally appearing in him, perhaps.)_

But not today.

The cabin door bursts open, and Grover Underwood is inside bringing morning light with him. "Perce! Percy, wake up," he throws himself on top of Percy's stomach, waking the demigod up effectively. "By the gods, Perce, you won't beli–"

"Percy!" And Annabeth is there, hands gripping the doorjamb and leaning into the dark cabin. "It's gone! _Di immortales_ , it's gone!" She's laughing and on the top of their dogpile, the original trio, the ones who started it all.

"What? What 's gone?" Percy asks, sleep and his nightmare losing their grip on him. Annabeth and Grover reply as one, facing him with tears running down their cheeks.

"The scent."

It's Chiron who explains it to the camp at breakfast that morning. Snippets of the centaur's words are bounce in Percy's head.

 _Your scent isn't really gone. More that there is something_ stronger _to cover it up…_

 _Hestia's magic amplified by the other Olympians power..._

 _A gift from the gods…_

There is silence at first, as fragile as it is deafening, for no one knows how to react to this.

"No…" Malcolm starts, voice wavering. "No more monsters?"

Chiron turns his eyes to the son of Athena and replies: "No, there are still monsters, not even the gods can completely overpower a grieving mother's spell. Only Lamia herself can undo her incantation, and I doubt she will be willing to do so. But, there will be fewer monsters now and technology no longer amplifies your smell."

Percy licks his lips and opens his mouth with every intention to speak. Instead, laughter – pure and sudden and beautiful – bubbles from his throat and it breaks the oppressive hush.

There is no peace for demigods. Lamia's made sure of that.

But, maybe, this… this _gift_ from the gods is a start.

…

When they were on the _Argo II_ , the seven of them going out as one was dangerous.

Not anymore.

Their adventure starts like this:

"Let's go on a road trip," is the first thing Leo, being Leo Valdez, suggests they do with this newfound freedom – because that's what this is, freedom, no limitations to how many can leave. Strength in numbers has no catch anymore. "Us seven."

Everyone is skeptical at first.

"In case you haven't noticed, Leo, we're in Long Island." Piper says. "It's already a road trip destination."

"Think about it," he says addressing them all, throwing an arm around Frank's shoulders and stretching out his open palm. "Imagine it: for one weekend, we don't have to be the Heroes of Olympus. Just seven friends, in a car, on the open road."

"But where would we go?" Hazel asks genuinely curious but eyes shining with thirst to see more of the world.

Annabeth thinks about it. "I hear camping at Lake George would be nice."

Everyone lets the idea simmer.

"Let's do it," Jason says. Percy, smiling, bumps knuckles with him as Leo pumps the air and whoops. All around them, there is laughter. There is happiness.

 **...**

"This is it," Annabeth smiles, forehead pressed against Percy's and his hands gripping her hips. He's pressed her against the side of the car Piper's father bought for them – a 2010 Yukon – and when Annabeth speaks, Percy can feel their lips brush. They are so close that he doesn't know where she begins and he ends.

That's the way its supposed to be.

"I have _never_ been on a road trip with friends before,"

"Sure you have, tons of times." Percy shrugs. "Every summer since we were twelve." No matter how hard Annabeth glares, they both know there's no heat in it. The two of them are content like this, tangled and one.

Until Leo honked the horn so loud they sprang apart.

"You two lovebirds," the son of Hephaestus says, smirking from his perch at the driver's seat. "Were absolutely no help in loading up the things." Calypso slaps at the arm he dangles out the open window.

Sliding into the shotgun seat, Percy playfully shoves Leo and asks: "Where's Frank?"

"Talking to Reyna and Nico." Hazel says, climbing aboard through the open doors. "He and Reyna are still talking about praetor business, and Jason's saying goodbye to Nico."

Piper yawns and rests her head on Hazel's, eliciting a giggle from the younger girl. "Can we move out now so I can sleep?"

Annabeth chucks her neck pillow at Piper and says, "No one's stopping you, McLean."

"Harsh, _Annie_ ," Piper adjusts the pillow around her to lean on it comfortably. "But thanks for the pillow."

"First one to sleep treats us to drive-through snacks." Leo singsongs as he checks the rear-view mirror. Calypso's given him a goodbye peck on the lips before she left for the Big House, and he's riding on the high it gave him. Piper's eyes shoot open fast than Riptide can transform from pen to sword.

"Valdez, you're joking."

"When do you know me to joke, Pipes?"

Fortunately, before Piper and Leo get into another banter, the rest of the Romans and Nico arrive. "How the hell would we go to the moon, Grace?" They all hear Nico ask, exasperated. "'Sides, what's on the moon? _Nothing_."

"But they brought the oxygen _with them_." Frank explains.

"In _tanks_." Jason adds, half-amused and half-desperate.

Nico does not even grace the two with words as his face says it all: _Bullshit._ All three boys have their hair sticking every which way, as if they had run their hands through it several times in frustration.

Reyna is the only one who looks even remotely sane, praetor cape and braid as impeccable as always. "Give it up, Nico won't believe you."

"Like Hades I will." He huffs, surprisingly petulant like a child.

"Have a safe trip, all of you." She tells all of them, one edge of her lips turned upwards in a smile.

"We'll send pictures of how the camps are doing." Nico adds when he sees Frank's worried gaze land on him and Reyna.

"And pictures of Coach Hedge's kid." Reyna adds. "As long as you all send us pictures in return. Also, souvenirs."

"For you two?" Percy clarifies.

"More like for the two camps." Reyna's smile transforms into a smirk and the seven are left grumbling.

…

They – more like the girls, really – planned how it would work.

Since Hazel is too young, Frank has yet to take the test, and Piper – well, she can be shit at driving when she's behind the wheel too long, the others will be the designated drivers. Percy, Annabeth, Leo and Jason would take turns after an hour at sitting at the front seats and the middle seats closest to the door.

At the second hour of the presumably five-hour-trip, everyone has fallen asleep so fast no one kept track of who closed their eyes first. At the very back, Frank is leaning on the window as Hazel, with her head in his right thigh, is stretched over the seat. Surprisingly, it is Hazel who is the loud-snorer in the relationship. Piper had found a comfortable spot on Jason's lap with her head burrowing into his neck, sharps edges and curves pressed against each other as they nap. Leo is passed out in the seat next to them and Percy guesses that he'll wake up with stiff neck the way he's laying.

Only Percy and Annabeth have manged to stay awake, the former driving and the latter the next to sit behind the wheel.

Above them, the light turns red just before they can cross.

And Annabeth is sitting there, alive and breathing and beautiful.

And Percy, he thinks – _knows_ , by the gods does he know – that he loves her more than everything in all the layers of the world. Loves her like she's the only thing he'll ever get the chance to love. Like she was everything that mattered.

 _(in tartarus, she_ was _the only thing that mattered – not even his life could come close)_

In that moment, Annabeth is his everything: his heartbeat, his scars, the breath in his lungs, the possibility of a happy ending.

Annabeth looks at him and smiles at him. And Percy looks at her and smiles back. There's nothing else but right here, right now. Just him and her and their sleeping friends –

And this road to nowhere in particular. Somewhere else.

Together, they breathe in.

Together, they breathe out.

The light turns green and, as they keep going, Percy doesn't look back.

* * *

 **end notes:** even writing about the seven's interactions gives me fluff-butterfllies. i'm sorry i push my friendship goals on them.

to _foreverskysong_ , I hope i did you justice. apologies, i'm rather rusty and i spent majority of the editing phase also reading bleedman's ppg doujinshi.

for some reason i couldn't write about team statue babes nico and reyna in this one. it's not that i don't know how… rather, its that i can't stop myself from writing about them. i swear, if they get more than 5 lines of dialogue, they became the protags of my fic.

anyways, i got the idea for the lamia-gods-gift-spell-thing from my friend (more like my aunt's high school student who spent christmas dinner with us and the two of us became friends after she looked at my bookcase) "sat". seriously. her name is "sat". i find it super amazing. how nice to be just a three-letter name…

i want to add more things and reasons why i chose the things i did – why piper drives for shit, why nico doesn't believe we went to the moon, why grover appears… actually heck i don't need a reason to write about one of our favorite satyrs – but i'd bore you all. please review :3 the more reviews the higher the chance of me eating a taco and i love tacos

I WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY 2k16


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